Half-Sister Movie Review

Offended semi-kin share a condo, and many years of severe disdain, in this obscurely clever Slovenian dramatization.
Basically a supported ace class in Resting Bitch Face, Half-Sister is a bad tempered however every now and again amusing two-hander about quarreling kin working through many years of uncertain common abhorring. In spite of the sad topic, Slovenian essayist chief Damjan Kozole's most recent sensational element paints a sunnier, more amusing representation of his Balkan country than his past movies, which addressed darker subjects, for example, individuals dealing, political defilement and prostitution.



Stepsister world debuted a week ago at Karlovy Vary movie celebration in the Czech Republic, where Kozole won the Best Director prize for his last element, the grotesque homicide spine chiller Nightlife (2016). Incompletely motivated by occasions in the chief's very own family ancestry, this little scale comic chamber piece should snatch further celebration play on the quality of its spiky content and solid character science. Showy business will be specialty, yet Kozole's strong reputation should help its odds in global craftsmanship house circles.

Screenplay co-creator Ursa Menart plays Irena, a morose youthful beautician amidst a genuinely emptying separation out of her careless spouse, Brane (sulky Adam Driver resemble the other alike Jurij Drevensek). Irena lives and works in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana, however her family roots are in the seaside town of Izola. During a concise visit home, she keeps running into her relative Neza (Liza Marijina), a punky boyish girl outcast with a switchblade and a hot temper. As the offspring of an Albanian mother, Neza has figured out how to face down ordinary supremacist slurs with cautious dangers.

They may share a dad, however these two young ladies share little else for all intents and purpose. Their demeanors are uncontrollably extraordinary, their ways of life scarcely practically identical, their relationship generally thorny. However, since both are urgently shy of cash, and Neza is moving to Ljubljana to begin a school course, Irena probably proposes that they take a stab at sharing a confined rental condo. What could turn out badly?

When settled in their minor living space, this not well coordinated couple hang out trading charmingly burning affront, returning to antiquated complaints and sadly chain-smoking. Compromise between the sisters at first appears to be unimaginable. In any case, gradually, and to some degree typically, they achieve an uneasy ceasefire. Creature darling Neza acquaints Irena with veggie lover nourishment, causes her recover her things from Brane and demonstrates an unforeseen partner when he goes too far from rejected ex to threatening stalker.

The endearingly unpolished, kick-ass Neza is the film's principle vitality source, regardless of whether her character is excessively baldly portrayed. She seems to have no private life, no social hinterland and no companions on the planet other than her pet pooch Jimmy. All the equivalent, Marijina occupies the job with relish, one eyebrow never-endingly half-positioned in bewildered despise, mouth set in a for all time neutral glower. Menart has the more troublesome assignment of playing the less thoughtful, less charming Irena. Her cold, exact execution is even more noteworthy from a nonprofessional. As co-author of Half-Sister, at some point collaborator executive to Kozole, and a movie producer in her very own right, Menart just took on the job after authority throwing sessions demonstrated unproductive.

Stepsister is skeletally plotted and low on significant episode. Kozole shoots in a common docudrama style, generally restricting himself to a bunch of insides. The sensational canvas here is more independent closeness than realistic scene, with disappointingly couple of shots of Ljubljana or Izola. Group of spectators request depends intensely on the fundamental characters and their trade of humorously harsh, snide, revile overwhelming jokes. Coming back to their mutual loft after an apparently unsalvageable aftermath, Neza tells Irena: "I was feeling the loss of your enthusiastic frigidity." The delights here are unobtrusive, however they mature into something more extravagant as the story unfurls.

Setting: Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

Creation organizations: Vertigo, Sisters and Brother Mitevska, Film House Bas Celik, RTV Slovenia

Cast: Ursa Menart, Liza Marijina, Jurij Drevensek, Peter Musevski, Damjana Cerne

Executive: Damjan Kozole

Screenwriters: Damjan Kozole, Ursa Menart, Ognjen Svilicic

Cinematographer: Miladin Colakovic

Editors: Jurij Moskon, Atanas Georgiev

Makers: Danijel Hocevar, Labina Mitevska, Jelena Mitrovic

Deals organization: Vertigo, Slovenia

105 minutes